Kiran Rao says ‘stars are risk-averse'; Anurag Kashyap slams manufactured competition pitting actors against each other: ‘Nobody looks at the script'

Indian Express

2 days ago

Abhishek Banerjee's latest film Stolen has been lauded by critics and filmmakers in the Hindi film industry ever since its release. Recently, filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, and Nikkhil Advani, along with Abhishek, sat down to speak about the film and also share their perspectives on the current scenario in the Hindi film industry — where big actors are refusing to do small films and are only chasing box office numbers.
Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Abhishek Banerjee recalled actor Aamir Khan's mantra to strike a balance between commercial and art cinema. He said, 'I have heard Aamir Khan say that he does commercial films so that he can make films that he wants to make. I have heard from people that if you are a part of commercial cinema, you can also be a part of this cinema.' Anurag Kashyap promptly pointed out how the late actor Irrfan Khan would work on commercial films but, at the same time, pick up projects by small and indie filmmakers to fulfill his creative soul.
Kiran praised her ex-husband, and said, 'Aamir has worked with so many first-time filmmakers in his career. I think it takes a certain confidence to know that the film and the material is really exciting and you are willing to take that risk. Most stars are risk-averse.'
Anurag cited the example of films like Omkara and Haider, when big stars like Ajay Devgn, Shahid Kapoor, and Saif Ali Khan took a chance with smaller films. He said, 'What made people like Ajay Devgn and Saif Ali Khan do films like Omkara? What made Shahid Kapoor do Haider?' Talking about the current scenario, he said, 'There is a notion that has been created on social media and marketing where now everybody is competing to out-do each other to deliver big hits, so nobody is really looking at the script anymore. They are just looking out whether it will be a hit.'
Abhishek also shared that even stars like Vinod Khanna had been part of indie films. Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani shared an interesting trivia about superstar Amitabh Bachchan and how the actor made sure to do a film with critically acclaimed filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He said, 'I heard from somewhere that Mr Bachchan made sure to do a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film every year.' Anurag went on to share that Rajesh Khanna actually pursued Hrishikesh Mukherjee to cast him in the 1971 film Anand. 'That's how actors were,' he said.